The Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" Beta for Power release is rolling! This release offers a preview of some of the best free and open source technology currently under development.

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== General Information ==

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We are delighted to announce the availability of the beta release of Fedora 18 for Power. Want to get a taste of the future? Download it now:

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{{admon/note | Download Fedora 18 Beta PPC now | To download Fedora 18 Beta PPC, visit [http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/18-Beta/ http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/18-Beta/] or one of the mirrors [https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/18-Beta/ppc64/ https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/18-Beta/ppc64/]. Download is available via direct download. This release is available for 64-bit Power PC platforms. Note that Fedora uses SHA256 instead of MD5 or SHA-1 to verify images in a more secure way. For more information, refer to [[#How_to_Try_Beta]] on this page. }}

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https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/18-Beta/ppc64/

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== Filing Bug Reports ==

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== What is the Beta Release? ==

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'''Please [[How_to_file_a_bug_report| file bug reports]] on this Beta release if you find any problems.'''

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The Beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 18. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading to the general release of Fedora 18 in the beginning of the next year. We invite you to join us in making Fedora 18 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.

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== Known Issues ==

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Of course, this is a beta release, meaning that some problems may still be lurking. A list of the problems we already know about is found at the Common F18 bugs page, seen here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F18_bugs

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Refer to the [[Common F18 bugs]] page for a listing of issues, and any known resolutions, commonly found with this release. This page is maintained throughout the Fedora 18 developmental cycle.

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There is a new upgrade system for Fedora 18 making its first appearance in Fedora 18 Beta. Upgrading via the system installer or the preupgrade tool is no longer possible. To upgrade to Fedora 18 from Fedora 17, you should use the new "Fedup" tool. Instructions and information on the new tool are here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedUp. The tool is still under active development, please take a look at the FedUp FAQ (in the wiki page) in case of any issues with the upgrade process, and back up your system before trying the upgrade.

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Also refer to the release notes for all architectures here: [[Fedora_18_Beta_release_notes]]

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== Known PPC Issues ==

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== Known Issues ==

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=== Installation ===

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* Installation fails on multipath devices.

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==== GRUB2 ====

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* Grub2 has a limit of 64 bytes for the device path. If you have a device with a path longer than 64 characters you will not be able to boot your system from such device. This will be fixed on Beta. For more info see [http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=857305 Bug 857305 ]

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* No grub2 modules are loaded on network boot. This makes commands like 'help' and 'linux' to be unavailable and the system won't boot. To workaround this issue you can explicitly load the modules in the grub.cfg file using the 'insmod' command. This will be fixed on Beta. For more info see [http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=857936 Bug 857936 ]

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=== Runtime ===

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* the ppc64p7 subarch is installed on power7 systems by default. This means that some rpms can end in ppc64.rpm pp64p7.rpm. Yum currently has a defect where it, under certain conditions, cannot reconcile the subarchs vs generic rpms properly. See bug -> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=859202

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== Release Overview ==

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As always, Fedora continues to [[Red_Hat_contributions | develop]] and [[Features | integrate]] the latest free and open sourced software. The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora. For more details about other features that are making their way into Rawhide and set for inclusion in Fedora 18, refer to their individual [[FeatureList | wiki pages]] that detail feature goals and progress.

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<!-- Also, throughout the release cycle, there are [[Interviews | interviews]] with the developers behind key features giving out the inside story. -->

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Features for this release are tracked on the [[FeatureList|feature list page]].

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=== The Purpose of the Beta Release ===

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This release is an installable, testable version of the code and features being developed for Fedora 18. The software has bugs, problems, and incomplete features. It is not likely to eat your data or parts of your computer, but you should be aware that it could.

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You have an important part to play in this release. Install Fedora 18 Beta PPC release, then try using a few applications or activities that are important to you. If it doesn't work, [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&rep_platform=powerpc file a bug], but make sure to set the 'Hardware' field to 'powerpc'. This release gives the wider community a set of code to test against as a very important step in the process of making a solid Fedora 18 release. You can make the Fedora 18 release better by testing this release and reporting your findings.

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== What's New in Fedora 18 Beta PPC ==

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There are several new features in Fedora 18 that warrant being called out.

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* ppc64p7 subarch support. For Power7 and higher specially optimized versions of several important applications and libaries, improving performance of them on Power7 machines by up a large amount.

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* The installer uses tmux to switch between the installer window, a bash prompt, and other windows which capture log files. Read more about tmux here: http://tmux.sourceforge.net/

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* The installer's command line parameters are changing. Read more about the change here: http://wwoods.fedorapeople.org/doc/boot-options.html

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* The name of the package group has changed from @base to @standard. This will affect kickstart files as well.

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* The boot disk has been built for Power7 and will not run on lesser machines. Look for "killed by SIGILL" or "unknown filesystem type 'DM_snapshot_cow'" in the logs.

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* fedup has received extremely little testing on ppc. Please exercise caution when testing it and file bugs

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== Additional Information ==

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* Due to bug #880277, an anaconda updates.img is required to use custom partitioning. This updates.img is bundled in the DVD ISO and will be automatically used, however if you are using the netinst ISO, specifythe following on the boot line:

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The Fedora 18 Beta PPC release is a Secondary Arch release. More information about this specific architecture can be found here:

More details about this Beta and information and known issues at our release

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notes wiki here:

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=== How to Try Beta ===

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https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_18_Beta_PPC_release_notes

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* Simply install it via the DVD or the netboot images

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We will be updating this wiki with more information during the course of the Beta.

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* Boot it!

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* Run it!

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* Test it!

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* Write bugs!

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=== Verify Fedora ===

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== Supported Hardware ==

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Fedora does not publish MD5 or SHA1 hashes to verify images since they are not secure enough. Instead we have been using SHA256 since Fedora 11. In Linux, you can use sha256sum command (part of coreutils and installed by default) to verify the Fedora image

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Fedora for Power is developed and tested on IBM POWER hardware. Legacy Apple PPC hardware is no longer supported due to a lack of substantive contributions and interest from the community.

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<pre>sha256sum -c *-CHECKSUM</pre>

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== General Features ==

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Windows can use the free to download utility [http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/index.htm HashCalc].

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For the general features please refer to the Beta announcement for the primary architecture:

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Mac OS X can use the free to download utility [http://www.implbits.com/hashtab.aspx hashtab].

Fedora GPG signatures can be verified following the [https://fedoraproject.org/en/verify?wkrnF14a instructions here]

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== Power Specific Features ==

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=== Debugging Information And Performance ===

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* Eclipse is now available for Power again! Give it a whirl if you're a developer

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Fedora kernels have many [[KernelDebugStrategy | extensive debugging options]] during the developmental cycle that have a negative impact on performance but provide developers with more information automatically, in the case of bug reports. If you are running performance analysis on Rawhide or test releases such as Alpha or Beta, make sure you take this into account.

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== Contributing ==

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=== Fedora 18 Release Schedule And Feature Details ===

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More information on Fedora for Power can be found at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Arch:PPC. To get involved in testing and development of Fedora for Power, join us on freenode in #fedora-ppc.

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Development continues on Rawhide during and after this release, leading to the beta, then the final release. The links below provide the release schedule for both the pre-releases and the final release, as well as the wiki's pages for tracking the various features planned for inclusion in Fedora 18.

Contents

What is the Beta Release?

The Beta release is the last important milestone of Fedora 18. Only critical bug fixes will be pushed as updates leading to the general release of Fedora 18 in the beginning of the next year. We invite you to join us in making Fedora 18 a solid release by downloading, testing, and providing your valuable feedback.

There is a new upgrade system for Fedora 18 making its first appearance in Fedora 18 Beta. Upgrading via the system installer or the preupgrade tool is no longer possible. To upgrade to Fedora 18 from Fedora 17, you should use the new "Fedup" tool. Instructions and information on the new tool are here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedUp. The tool is still under active development, please take a look at the FedUp FAQ (in the wiki page) in case of any issues with the upgrade process, and back up your system before trying the upgrade.

Known Issues

fedup has received extremely little testing on ppc. Please exercise caution when testing it and file bugs

Due to bug #880277, an anaconda updates.img is required to use custom partitioning. This updates.img is bundled in the DVD ISO and will be automatically used, however if you are using the netinst ISO, specifythe following on the boot line: